Developing Reflective Practice Essay

This essay get out focus on infracting pensive open through exploring a exact incident in the proceedingplace. It will explore diametrical methods of upbraiding and use champion particular method to reflect on the critical incident (appendix 1) and explain why this individual method was chosen. It will survey individual carg unrivaledr initiatement by reviewing knightly intrust and the skills t assume ask been gained throughout time, for example aggroup written report, group social functions and experience gained, which will be ship canal to measure how development has progressed. It will illustrate a critical catch of assessing mortalal capability at bottom the go awayplace. It will identify a set to the highest degree of personal and interpersonal skills that contribute to effective master copy make and unalike types of work methods and will likewise reflect on go for and develop action plans to meet personal goals for the future. It is important to ref lect on practice to assist us grow as populate, find faults and work on issues to break out ourselves.Wigens (20031) states reflective practice has been identified as bingle of the keystone focuss in which we can learn from our experiences, however Atherton (2003) cited in Johnston and Nahmad-Williams (2009367) questions whether reflectance can re eithery bring together the practical and theoretical. Paige- metalworker and Craft (2008) puts earlier that it is important to reflect on how we interact with clawren and wield their peer interactions this helps us to reflect on how important interactions atomic number 18. After tactile sensation at Different methods of reflection, I investigated and con font blushful a few, for example Gibbs and Kolbs. Gibbs is kind of sympathetic to De Bonos as you ar subject to explore the different breaker points in depth, but ready that Kolbs does non lose a clear get off between for each one phase of the cycle, therefore I or der it difficult to pull the exemplar study apart using this method. Johnston and Nahmad-Williams (2009365) writes Although Kolbs type is usable to gibe where reflection fits into the reading cycle, it does not provide elaborate about what reflection is and the processes in which it is achieved The model of reflection that has been chosen is De Bonos vi thinking hats. This method strike to be the about interest to myself as it can be quite a visual tool.The hats are referred to by their colour at all times as unconnected to their function (De Bono 2000), the reason for this is as De Bono (200014) states If you ask someone to give his or her emotional reaction to something, you are unlikely to get an honest retort because people think it is wrong to be emotional.Lindon (2012) puts forward that De Bonos method is a parallel federal agency of thinking, meaning that you are looking and thinking in the same direction yet the direction changes. It helps to give a much rounde d viewpoint and helps see things from a different perspective. Dreyer (2012) illustrates this by imagining a house with four people around it, one facing the front, one facing the backrest and one at each side All may argue that their viewpoint is the best, but until you walkway around and view the house from all four angles you will not be able to view an understanding of different perspectives. Johnston and Nahmad-Williams (2009365) state that Dewey (1859-1952) was an authoritative figure in education and viewed reflection as a way of purposeful thinking that is systematic and raises questions and answers. De Bono (2000) suggests that thinking is imperative in passing(a) life and no matter how good we think we are we should continuously reach to be better.De Bonos six hat model has six aspects the foremost be the white hat which suggests that you first examine the selective information you ready available, the facts and the figures, in this case Child Ls dumb losss to be able to bring her child into nursery earlier than 800am as she has to be in work, but thinks it is too expensive to present for the early sessions, afterwards being told to not jazz in early, still still persisted in arriving prior to 800am. The heartbeat aspect is the red hat which is your intuition, emotions and reaction, in this case disembodied spiritings were frustration that mum did not want to pay like other(a)s, annoyed that she was ignoring me, aggravated she kept bringing child L early, infuriated at the fact that she was not communicating with staff, un concerted as did not want to help mum and nervous to cumber having to tell her repetitively. The third aspect is the black hat which is the prejudicious points of the situation, De Bono (2000) states that this is the most valuable of all of the hats and should not be seen as a grownup hat, it is only to highlight possible risks and potential problems, in this case it is unjust to parents that are paying for the early start and not fair on staff members setting the dwell up.The fourth aspect is the yellow hat which is the positive aspects of the situation, in this case it is good for parents to test staff members persistence as it helps deal with things in future calmly and confidently, having gained knowledge and experience, also that the manager and parent were able to meet half way and come to a conclusion of a joint decision. The fifth aspect is the putting green hat which summarises andconcludes of flatts, helping to decide what has been learned and what you will take forward into future practice. In this case it has shown that parents are going to get retrousse at times and practitioners give birth to deal with it as effective as possible. In future I would try and resolve the situation myself by coming to a resolution without involving the manager if possible, this way it may grant not escalated as quickly as it did. The final aspect is the benighted hat which is the ev aluation to put the green hat into action. In this case make sure there are parent comment boxes where if a parent is unhappy they are able to voice their opinion and feel listened to instead of getting worked up. If it is possible to find an alternative and affordable way to engage struggling parents for example to be able to drop their child off early maybe just five minutes. You may accordingly imagine you were the complete opposite and ask yourself how you would now feel.By going through these different thought processes you are allowing your brain to take a journey to come to a fair conclusion. Having worked through the above reflective model it has highlighted some personal strengths and weaknesses which be in possession of been useful to reflect on professional development. Writing a timeline of career progression (appendix 2) has enabled me to look at past practice and focus on the skills gained throughout years of rearing. This has been a useful method of looking at pers onal progression. The most pleasant experience had to be when I worked in Majorca as a childrens representative.Whilst here learnt to tone down my expressive personality, after a hurricane struck I panicked and scared the holiday makers, my manager pulled me into the office and explained that it was actually unprofessional and that I needed to control my emotions. Another experience was after returning home, a family that used to at fly the coop my previous nursery had sensible me of some very upsetting news. They told me that the mother of a 1 month old baby had died. The father asked if I would be interested in becoming their private nanny, after on the job(p) on the other side of child care in a home environment I was able to see things from a different perspective and can tie in to parents in current practice. Many times in life the probability have arisen for me to develop and grow as a practitioner. Since being a child my career path has been quite clear and after lea ving school I began to study child care, alongside working with children. spirit back it was quite a vulnerable decision as the greatness of childcare was not asgreat as now, and after working in several nurseries, learnt that it is hard work.The chance finally came for a procession to be third in charge of a nursery, after being successful in the position I realised that it was going to be a difficult journey. The job was very rewarding, although the time spent with the children had been halved due(p) to paperwork and other duties, and other practitioners that used to work alongside me were now victorious instructions from me. Through this time I began to deal with confrontation, at first the thought was quite daunting but after tons of practice feel very comfortable to cash advance this. The next step in my career development was a job that I happen to attain across. I quickly arranged an interview as the money was great yet the responsibilities cut. The setting was not l ike one I have worked in, or heard of before as there were lots of take children and chance to delve into the social work side of things. In the past my experience has been in upper class nurseries with highly qualified parents such as Lawyers and Doctors.I quickly learned that this was going to bring me lots of experience and after working there for a year and a half I got promoted to a room fadeer, this is my current situation and have now been working there for four years. Every day I feel I learn something new in my job role and am one of the few people who love my job. Within my duties I attend core group meetings and case conferences, liaise with social workers and other professionals, as well as support the staff in my room with their daily duties and most importantly care for the children within my setting. The team we have is a highly qualified group of people who have all worked there for a long time and enjoy working together. pitchforkly staff member has a different personality which helps the nursery see things from different perspectives. Miller (2005) proposes that teams get together by different personalities balancing out so everybody has an input. I have a very bubbly and confident personality yet a colleague of mine is quite the opposite. It is this balance that helps the staff and parents to feel comfortable and be able to approach individual members of the team with ease to support their personal preference.Manktelow (1995) illustrates you are able to solve different problems using numerous approaches such as ambition, sensitivity, creativity etc. As staff we are able to approach difficulties within our working hours and pommel them giving each other great support. ilk Lindon (2012) we work effectively as a team even though there is a hierarchyeveryone is allowed to have their own opinion and are listened to which helps everybody feel positive. All members of the team enjoy attending regular training courses to make sure we are u p to date with current practice and procedures. Miller (2005) puts forward that it is important for practitioners to take a critical look at theory and practice when working with children. Regular staff meetings are held and staff appraisals. It is important to be able to give and receive reconstructive criticism. I recently have started to give the 4 practitioners underneath me appraisals. I find it to be quite difficult to explain that they need to work on different parts of their practice. This is an area that I need to work on. The praise sandwich is a tactic that my manager explained to me, when you have something negative that you need to discuss with a member of the team, you should start and end by saying something positive. This helps the person to realise that they are acknowledged for the good practice as well as the bad. She also told me to be more of a Swan which was explained to me like this. A swan is a beautiful wildcat who is relaxed above water, however below the water her feet are going very fast.My manager explained for me to stay calm on the outside in situations even if underneath I am struggling. After researching more about this found a good self reflection tool called SWAN. Jagusiak (2013) writes that it stands for Strength, Weakness, Ambition and Need. She explains that it involves witnessing and examining ones own practice, although you are watching someone else, this will help to analyse and critique any weaknesses. I am high to be part of the team and feel that we are at the performing represent in our career. Tuckman (1965) cited by Smith (2005) argues that when groups of people come together they go through four separate stages as they meet and establish. These phases are called forming, storming, norming and performing. Forming is when the people in the group are meeting and accepting each other, they tend to test boundaries and figure interpersonal behaviours out. Storming is when they are a bit more comfortable and are abl e to speak out, question and criticize one another, they feel more comfortable to form conflict. Norming is when the group is established, they have overcome resistance and able to express personal opinions. Performing is the fourth stage where a team work well together, almost complement each other and help one another, roles are well established and performance is high. This is where my team are at themoment.Tuckman later in 1977 proposed an update and added a fifth phase adjourning. This is the stage where tasks are complete, people go their separate ways and group members can disengage. This can be due to seclusion or the setting closes. After conducting some individual experiments to see how I work and how I fit into my team, I found that an auditory learning style suits best as the spoken word seems to digest better personally. The Belbin Team Inventory test showed that the implementer stuck out from the rest. I find this to be true as am a very positive person and am motiva ted and self disciplined. My favourite questionnaire had to be the Honey and Mumfords learning style. After completing this it was found to be quite equally distributed between all of the aspects, which are the activist, the theorist, the pragmatist and the reflector. My scores were slightly higher in reflector and pragmatist. I am in agreement with this as am very enthusiastic about trying new things out in practice, yet able to stand back and view the whole plastic film before jumping in head first.Lindon (2012) writes once we have highlighted our favored learning style using many questionnaires there are a number of ways to put these into practice. Completing these self-reflection tests has enabled me to understand more about the person that I am, how I work and what I need to strive to achieve in the near future. Taking this into consideration I have planned for some future development. I thought it would be useful to look at the early years standards and aim to develop some aspects of these. With this in mind I have chosen 2.5 go bad and sustain respectful relationships with children and their families. I have chosen this one linking back to my critical incident. It is important to sustain respectful relationships with parents as you have to work in partnership with them on a daily posterior. Through these professional relationships comes trust allowing us to fulfil our parents as partners ethos. The second aspect I would like to develop is 7.2 take a lead in establishing and sustaining a culture of cooperative working between colleagues and wider professionals. I have chosen this one due to the fact I actively engage with outside agencies and other professionals on a daily basis and would like to make sure that I am continuing this cooperative behaviour. In conclusion I feel that I am a very reflective person. I enjoy receiving constructive criticism, as I like to have goals to work towards and always strive to better myself. I have enjoyed completi ng this essay asit has highlighted many things about myself I had forgotten along the way, such as how I used to dribble and react to problems.By illustrating this it has stated the fact that without knowing I have been learning and developing from the start. I have discovered ways for me and my team to find out more about how we work as practitioners and ways to overcome certain situations like my critical incident. I am proud of my personal achievement and would encourage anyone to work with children as it is a very rewarding path in life.Dreyer, L Arts Forward, Munch orderliness 1 Edward deBonos Six Thinking Hats Sep 10th 2012 http//artsfwd.org/munch-club-1-edward-debonos-six-thinking-hats/ On-Line-UK Accessed 20.11.13 De Bono, E (2000) Six Thinking Hats, Penguin Books Great Britain Jagusiak, C (2013)SWAN technique http//www.satyaliveyoga.com.au/2013/04/16/swan-technique/ On-Line-UKAccessed 10.12.13 Johnston, J and Nahmad- Williams (2009) archaean Childhood Studies, Pearson Ed ucation Ltd England Lindon, J (2012) wistful Practice and Early Years Professionalism, 2nd edition, Bookpoint LTD Oxon Manktelow, J (1995) mental capacity Tools Essential Skills for an excellent career, Mind Tools, UK Blackwell Miller, L (2005) ontogenesis Early Years Practice, Oxon David Fulton Publishers Paige-Smith, A and Craft, A (2008) Developing Reflective Practice in the Early Years, Berkshire Open University Press Reed, M and Natalie, C (2010) Reflective Practice in the Early Years, SAGE Publications LTD capital of the United Kingdom Smith, M. K. (2005). Bruce W. Tuckman forming, storming, norming and performing in groups, the encyclopedia of informal education. http//infed.org/mobi/bruce-w-tuckman-forming-storming-norming-and-performing-in-groups/. Accessed 02.12.13. Wigens, L (2003) Beginning Reflective Practice, Cheltenham Nelson thornes Ltd